Multiple Joint Pain And Rheumatoid Arthritis

Joints are connections between our bones in our body. A common ailment of joints for which one has to visit the orthopedic OPD is arthritis in which the patient has symptoms of pain, swelling, stiffness, and deformity of joints.

Arthritis is common of 2 types

• Primary arthritis is usually age-related and affects knee joints in the Indian population and more commonly the hip joints in the western population. Patients present in the OPD with pain, swelling, and progressive deformity of knees. Treatment options include medication, exercises, and lifestyle modification, intraarticular injections, and Physiotherapy. If these measures are unable to make an impact then Joint Replacement surgery is the final answer.
• Inflammatory arthritis in which small joints are affected and our own immune system strikes the muscles, internal organs as well as body tissues. This is mostly in the joints of our hands and feet. Pain followed by swelling is the symptom that a person may have rheumatoid arthritis. Symptoms are typically seen are :
  • Morning stiffness
  • The symmetry of joint involvement
  • Small joints of hands and feet affected
  • more symptoms in winters
  • middle age (more commonly females) as the onset of disease

The symptoms may also be seen where there are no joints in your body, like the eye, eyes, heart, and lungs. When this stays for a longer period of time and when a person does not take proper treatment, then the joints may also deform and shift from their original place.

This can be treated with medicines call DMRDs after proper assessment through blood tests and X-rays. Usually, if treatment started early, the disease progression can be stopped and symptoms reversed, following which the number of medication can be reduced.

Most important is early diagnosis and management. If joints have already got deformed then surgery is needed to correct the same and restore mobility.